For the fourth straight season, Kent State will play Buffalo in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Flashes beat Akron 64-58 Saturday to finish the regular season in fifth place in the MAC. They were 10-6 in the MAC season, 11-8 overall.
Buffalo beat first-place Bowling Green 69-68 in overtime Saturday at BG to claim fourth place. The Bulls ended 11-6 in the conference, 14-8 overall.
Kent State beat Buffalo 72-66 last season in the final game before COVID-19 canceled the tournament. The Bulls won the two previous years and went on to win the tournament and advance to the NCAA tournament.
The Flashes beat Buffalo 65-62 in Kent two weeks ago in the only meeting between the two teams in the regular season.
Young, Blackford and Shumate lead the way
Sophomore forward Nila Blackford played 21 minutes, her fewest this season, and still scored 21 points.
Junior guard Hannah Young played 32 minutes, the most of her career, and had 15 rebounds. That tied Blackford for the most rebounds by a KSU player this season.
Sophomore guard Katie Shumate played 37 minutes after sitting out Wednesday loss to Bowling Green to rest aching legs. She scored 15 points.
With starter Clare Kelly on the bench with a foot injury for the second game in a row, Young starting her second game of the season.
She led a 48-24 dominance for Kent State on the boards with seven offensive and eight defensive rebounds.
“If I try to rebound, it all comes together,” Young said after the game. “I feel like that’s my role on this team.”
In Saturday’s game, Young said, “When I saw the ball, I just went to grab it. A lot of is is just effort based, but it is a lot of watching the ball and anticipating where it’s going to bounce off.”
Coach Todd Starkey said Young’s rebounding was “huge in a tight game like this.”
“Hannah had learned what her niche is,” he said. “This year she’s had great rebounding numbers from the guard position. She’s just aggressive. In rebound, you have to treat every shot like it’s a miss. She certain does.
“We’re really happy for her. She’s a hard worker and a great teammate.”
Kent State’s 24-rebound advantage was its biggest of the season. The Flashes had 22 offensive rebounds, also a season high, and 21 second-chance points. Buffalo had eight.
Young also had five points, an assist, a steal and a block. She took a charge that fouled out Jordyn Dawson, Akron’s leading scorer and rebounder, in the fourth quarter.
Blackford’s efficient game
Blackford picked up her third foul early in the second quarter played only five minutes in the first half, then sat out the beginning of the third quarter. But when she got back on the court, she was — in Young’s words — “a beast.”
She scored 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting in the fourth quarter, including a basket off of an offensive rebound with 1:47 to go to give KSU a somewhat comfortable 60-55 lead. In the game, Blackford made 8-of-10 shots and 5-of-6 foul shots. Blackford had been struggling at the line and missed seven free throws in KSU’s three-point loss at Miami last week.
‘It was good for her to see the ball go through the basket, especially from the free throw line,” Starkey said. “She’s a good free-throw shooter; it’s just that she’s been in her head a little bit.
“She did a really good job defensively without fouling and did a really good job of finishing.”
Shumate comes back with a purpose
Shumate had knee surgery last summer and at one point in the preseason, it wasn’t clear whether she would be able to play at all this season.
But she played every game until she sat out at Bowling Green and averaged more than 30.7 minutes a game in MAC play.
“She looked a lot fresher out there than she has the last couple of weeks,” Starkey said. “And it was like a fire was burning in her when she was watching that Bowling Green game when she could have helped out.
“But she agreed that she needed the rest. It was important to give her a kind of pseudo bye week so she could be at her best.”
Shumate made her first three shots as the Flashes raced to an 18-2 lead late in the first quarter.
“When she plays like that consistently, she’s an all-conference player,” Starkey said.
Shumate also was the primary defender on Jordyn Dawson, Akron’s leader in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals.
Dawson got into foul trouble early and finished with eight points on 2-of-12 shooting, two rebounds, on assist, one steal and three turnovers.
“Katie defended her really, really well,” Starkey said. “When she sits down and guard with her length and her ability to move, she’s one of the better perimeter defenders in the league.”
Shumate led Kent State in assists with three and steals with two. She also had six rebounds.
The big lead vanishes
After Blackford picked up her second and third fouls within 16 seconds in the second quarter, Buffalo outscored KSU 13-2 for the rest of the half and cut the Flashes’ lead to 29-25.
“We were playing with great flow and tempo, and that kind of slowed some things down,” Starkey said. “They also did a good job of changing the way they guarded Katie.”
Shumate had 11 points through the middle of the second quarter and only four after that.
A point for the Wagon Wheel Challenge
The win earns Kent State a point in the Crystal Clinic Wagon Wheel Challenge between Kent and Akron. Each team gets a point when it beats the other in any sport.
Since KSU and then Zips met just once in women’s basketball this season, the Flashes get the full point. (It’s usually a half point per game in a two-game series.)
Best I can tell, this year’s challenge is tied at 3-3. Kent State has won points in football, volleyball and women’s basketball. Akron beat the Flashes in cross country, men’s indoor track and women’s indoor track.
The challenge is independent of the physical Wagon Wheel, which goes to the winner of the Kent State-Akron football game.
Full video replay of game on ESPN3
Notes
- Freshman Lexi Jackson, who has been KSU’s top post reserve over the last seven games, didn’t play because of a high ankle sprain suffered in practice Friday. Kelly sat out her second-straight game with an injured foot. Starkey said he was hopeful both could play on Wednesday.
- The Flashes had fans in the stands for the first time this season. Attendance was announced at 134, all of whom sat in the upper bleachers of the M.A.C. Center. A change in the university’s COVID-19 policy allowed players and coaches to invite two people teach.
- Going back to last season, Kent State held Akron without a field goal for 18 minutes and 39 seconds. In last year’s game, won by the Flashes 68-50, Akron didn’t make a basket for the last 9:31 of the fourth quarter. Saturday Akron didn’t make a field goal until 52 seconds were left in the first quarter. (That’s courtesy of Jay Fiorello, the assistant athletic communications director who handles women’s basketball.)
- It was the last home game for seniors Monique Smith and Margaux Eibel, who rang the Victory Bell for the team afterwards. Smith played a season-high 15 minutes, had two points, five rebounds, an assist and two steals.
Final 2020-21 MAC Standings
| MAC W-L | Pct. | MAC Home | MAC Away | All games | |
| BGSU | 14-4 | .778 | 8-2 | 6-2 | 18-5 |
| CMU | 13-6 | .684 | 7-3 | 6-3 | 15-8 |
| Ohio | 11-6 | .647 | 5-4 | 7-3 | 13-7 |
| Buffalo | 11-6 | .647 | 6-2 | 5-4 | 14-8 |
| Kent St | 10-6 | .625 | 6-1 | 4-5 | 11-8 |
| Ball St | 12-8 | .600 | 4-5 | 8-1 | 14-10 |
| NIU | 10-8 | .556 | 5-3 | 5-5 | 12-11 |
| EMU | 7-7 | .500 | 3-4 | 4-3 | 10-9 |
| Toledo | 8-12 | .400 | 5-6 | 3-6 | 12-12 |
| WMU | 5-14 | .263 | 4-5 | 1-9 | 6-15 |
| Akron | 4-14 | .222 | 2-6 | 2-8 | 7-14 |
| Miami | 3-17 | .150 | 2-9 | 1-8 | 4-20 |
Saturday’s MAC results
BUFFALO ran to a 32-16 halftime lead at first-place Bowling Green, then saw a 25-11 BG fourth quarter tie the game at the end of regulation. In the overtime, Buffalo’s Dyaisha Fair hit a layup in the last minute to give the Bulls a 69-68 overtime win.
“To go on the road and beat a really good team gives us great energy leading into the MAC Tournament next week,” Buffalo senior center Summer Hemphill said on the UB website.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN stormed from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Northern Illinois 74-68.
NIU had beaten Central 104-73 in DeKalb in January, and took a 12-point lead in the first quarter Saturday. But the Chippewas outscore Northern 25-13 in the fourth quarter.
OHIO’s Cece Hooks had the second triple-double in school history to lead the Bobcats past Miami 84-70. Hooks had 31 points, 11 assists and 10 steals.
Ohio shot a season-high 57.6% from the field. The other Ohio triple-double came earlier this season by redshirt junior Erica Johnson, who has been battling an injury and scored 11 points off the bench Saturday.
BALL STATE outscored Western Michigan 47-33 in the second half to win 76-69.
Junior forward Thelma Dis Agustsdottir scored 19 points for BSU. Oshlynn Brown had 14 points and 17 rebounds for the 3th double-double in her career.
TOLEDO was the only non-tournament team to win Saturday, knocking off Eastern Michigan 59-55 in Toledo. Quinesha Lockett had 22 for the Rockets, her 13th 20-point game of the season.